Ice Cream Cake
by Kasirose
Summary: How does accidentally overhearing a conversation lead to Dawn and Paul temporarily traveling together? What is this this about a birthday? And what does a purple icecube have anything to do with this? Follow Dawn as she and Paul travel to Veilstone city together. Ikarishipping Day one-shot


_A/N: Hi everybody it is I, Kas! Welcome to this story that I wrote for Ikarishipping day since I just love these two! This is my first story so sorry if there's bad grammar or it's boring, etc. This is meant to be an Ikarishipping story, but I was trying to get the characters' personalities right (more specifically Paul) so the story turned out more like a friendship thing? So, sorry for anyone who was looking for a big fluffy Ikarishipping story, you won't be finding one here...Anyway, constructive_ _criticism_ _is_ welcome, but flames will be used in a campfire with my friends to roast s'mores! I hope you all enjoy the story!

 _Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Pokemon characters or anything affiliated with them. They belong to their respective owners! I do however own my OCs!_

 _Please read and review!_

* * *

Dawn was taking a short break away from coordinating and decided to take a trip around the Sinnoh region for some sight seeing. Currently the bluenette had arrived in Sunnyshore and after returning Togekiss to its pokeball, was walking around the city. The soft breeze blew in her midnight blue hair as she made her way to the pokemon center.

* * *

Dawn's POV

It's been a long time since I've been in this city, but it hasn't seemed to change much. Besides having a few more stores here and there, it looks about the same as when I last visited. I should really be heading to a pokemon center though, I forgot how sunny and hot it was here and all those UV rays just beating down on me probably isn't very good. Lucky for me, I can see the center just up ahead!

"Hello and welcome to the Sunnyshore Pokemon center! How are you today?" Nurse joy greets cheerfully. I'm still amazed how they all look the same! I mean, isn't it just a little bit weird?

"I'm fine thank you." I reply back with a smile. "I was just wondering if I could get a room here for tonight?"

"Well of course dear, just give me one moment." Nurse joy says as she types on her computer.

While I'm waiting, I turn around and take a look at my surroundings. I see people of all ages and pokemon of all kinds. Well, I guess Sunnyshore is a hot vacation spot, kind of literally. It's got nice weather and the Pokemon league is nearby, so I guess it makes sense for there to be so many people here. I turn around again to where the video phones are and I see a blur of greyish-purple hair. Wait! I wonder if that could be-

"Here is your room key to room 201 and I hope you enjoy your stay!" My thoughts are interrupted by nurse Joy holding my room key out to me.

I quickly turn around and say "thank you! Have a nice day!" Before deciding to walk over to the phones to see if that really was him.

"Reggie! Just shut up!" the purple figure grumbled and said to the person on the videophone screen.

Yeah, there's no mistaking that voice or that attitude, that's got to be Paul. I mean c'mon! There's only one person I know who's that rude to everyone. I stop walking and decide to wait around the corner since I didn't want to interrupt the conversation between him and his brother.

"C'mon Paul, you honestly don't want to do anything for your birthday at all?!" Reggie shouted through the phone.

"Can you be quiet Reggie!" Paul growled at the screen, "I don't want everyone to know about it, and I've told you already! I don't want to do anything for my birthday! I already came back to Sinnoh and I'm losing training time, so you should be happy!"

Well, I guess it's too late for Reggie to "shut up" because I already heard everything. I didn't mean to eavesdrop but seriously, anyone within a 5 meter radius would have heard him.

Despite Paul's complaints, Reggie continued pressing on. "Are you really sure you don't want to do anything for your birthday, I mean it is your 16th birthday in a week."

"So? What's so special about that? It's not any different from any other birthday." Paul said roughly.

"I know technically it isn't any different, but it's been a tradition for years! Can't you just help but feel like you should do something for it?"

"No."

"C'mon little bro! You haven't had a decent birthday since you were 5." Reggie said desperately pressing on.

"One, don't call me that, two, I hardly think inviting a bunch of random people you don't even know to your birthday counts as decent." Paul countered.

"But Paul! Why don't you just-"

"BYE!" Paul interrupted gruffly and shut off the phone. "Stupid Reggie…" He muttered under his breath.

Wow, so Paul's birthday is next week huh? Seems like he's really against celebrating his birthday though, I kind of wonder why? I know he's cold and all but doesn't everyone like a small celebration here and there? Maybe I'll have to find out, but I can't directly ask him, he'll probably blow a fuse at me for eavesdropping...guess I'll play it clueless.

I make my way over to him and call out. "Hey! Paul!"

* * *

Paul's POV

"Hey! Paul!" I hear a somewhat familiar voice calling out to me. I turn around and...wow...this day can't get any worse can it. It's that girl who used to travel around with Ash and that other gym leader guy.

"Hn…" I hum back to her not really wanting to deal with any nonsense right now. The last thing I need is some annoying girl pestering me after a frustrating talk with Reggie.

"Hi Paul, I didn't know you were in Sinnoh, I thought you were in Hoenn doing the battle Frontier?" She asked me looking at me with a cheerful smile on her face. I wonder how she knew where I was supposed to b- "Or at least that's what you told me the last time I saw you somewhere." Oh that's right, that's how she knew.

"Hmp it's none of your business what I'm doing here troublesome girl." I respond coldly. What was her name again something wit think, like a time of day?

"It's DAWN!" Oh yeah, that's what it was. "I was trying to be nice and talk to you but it doesn't seem like I'm welcome so I guess I'll just leave." She huffed as she sharply turned on her heel to leave.

"Wait!" I'm not sure what compelled me to say that, but it surprised even me. She turned around again with a look of shock and surprise on her face with her blue eyes wide open probably from the fact that I called out. "Look, if you really want to know, I came back for stupid Reggie and I'm only in Sinnoh for about a week and a few days anyway."

She looks at me with a bit of confusion and then says "For Reggie? Why would you do that? I thought you didn't care about him"

"I don't. I only came back to shut him up." I said turning sideways not really wanting to explain in detail.

"What was he bothering you about?" She asks with a slight cock of her head.

I knew I should have probably just let her leave earlier cause now, she's going to pelt me with questions. Oh mew why did I call out to her? AUGGG! I don't even know why.

"Umm Paul!" She called while waving her hand in front of my face breaking my thoughts.

"What!" I grumble to her with annoyance thick in my voice.

"Ok, so we're going back to being all rude and mean, anyway, I was asking you what Reggie was bothering you about? I mean I don't want to intrude, so you don't have to answer me if you really don't want to but I was just wondering?" She said while fidgeting around a bit.

This was my chance to end the conversation right here and now, but for some reason again surprising myself, I felt a bit bad just leaving her hanging after she asked me. I could just lie to her and make up some excuse, but she already asked twice, no point in really lying to her. Besides, just because I'm cold doesn't mean I lie to people.

"Fine I'll tell you since you seem like you really want to know." I take a breath and then continue. "I came back because next week is my birthday and Reggie was pestering me about doing something for it when I don't want to. I came back just so he would shut up but he's still pestering me about it...happy I answered you now?" I said turning to her with a scowl.

"Oh! Your birthday is next week!? Hap-"

"Don't even start." I cut her off mid-sentence. "I was mad at Reggie because I didn't want him to make a big deal out of it which is why I was reluctant to tell you, got it?" I said sternly hoping to finish the conversation as fast as I could.

"Ummm...ok then...bye I guess?" Dawn said awkwardly before walking away probably to find her room, but I could care less where she went.

Oh Mew! There's probably something wrong with me. WHY would I want to keep the conversation going especially with Dawn too. I guess it might be something about Dawn's optimistic personality, or maybe Reggie annoyed me to the point where I can't think straight. Yeah, it was probably Reggie.

Well it's late now so I should probably head off to my room and get some sleep.

* * *

Dawn's POV

Once I was sure Paul was long gone to his room somewhere, I sat down at one of the videophones, specifically the one that was more private just in case he decides to come back. I scrolled down my poketch to find Reggie's number then punched it into the phone once I found it.

It rang one...two...three times and then Reggie's smiling face lit up the screen.

"Why hello Dawn! It's a nice surprise to see you, but why did you call me?" Reggie greeted with a friendly wave.

I waved back at him with a smile. "Nice to see you too Reggie! Uhmm...I was calling because I may have accidently overheard your conversation with Paul earlier...I'm really sorry I didn't mean to eavesdrop but I was just walking by!" I said frantically while hoping he understood what I was saying.

"So you must have heard that Paul's birthday was next week, but he didn't want to do anything for it?" Reggie asked.

I slowly nodded my head. "Yeah I heard all...that...I was hoping to change his mind about it by talking to him, but I never got the chance to…"

"Don't sweat it Dawn, he's already convinced me enough he doesn't want to do anything, but that's just Paul." Reggie said nonchalantly while waving a dismissive hand in front of the screen.

"But I still feel like we should do something for him!" I protested. "Besides, based on your conversation, I think he was only mad because he didn't like the fact that there were a bunch of random people at his last party and he's sort of anti-social. So I was thinking, what if we threw him a small party with just the three of us, maybe he'd be alright with it?" I suggested.

"Hmmm...that's a pretty good idea" Reggie thought for a moment. "Ok, let's do it! I think a week is enough time to plan something small right?"

"Sure it is!" I said gleefully. Maybe Paul will hate me for this but whatever, I just want to try and do something nice for him. Even though he's always so cruel to me, something inside of me is just calling for this to happen.

"Umm...hello? Dawn? You still there? Hmm...is my screen frozen?" Reggie's confused voice calling out to me snaps me out of my train of thought.

"Oh! Right sorry! ehehe...I zoned out. What were you saying?" I sheepishly said while rubbing the back of my head.

The two of us talked about a few party plans before we decided it was late and could finish the conversation tomorrow through texting.

So far, we decided that it was just going to be a small party at their house with a cake. I agreed to let Reggie invite Maylene because I didn't think Paul would really mind that much, I mean it's not like they're strangers. But besides that, there wouldn't be any other guests. I think our plan is going pretty well so far, so I'm going to go sleep and think about this tomorrow.

* * *

The next morning I wake up to the soft beeping of my poketch alarm. I slowly get out of bed and make my way to the bathroom to get ready. Oh darn, my hair is sticking up in all weird directions again! What a great way to start the morning.

After I finish brushing my hair out, I grab a few things and head downstairs to the Pokemon centre cafeteria for some breakfast.

I head into the cafeteria and I'm surprised to see that the walking ice cube is still here. Honestly, I would have expected him to have already left early in the morning, but I suppose maybe he could be stalling since he doesn't particularly want to go to Veilstone and see Reggie.

I decide to make my way over to him and say hi because even if he was kind of cold, it's still better than having no one to talk to, besides maybe he was just frustrated last night and he isn't actually so bad?

"Hey Paul! I didn't know you were still here!" I called as I bounded over to where he was.

"Tch, what do you want now" He grumbled with annoyance lining his voice. Okay, so maybe I spoke too soon about the whole maybe he isn't so bad thing, but whatever, it doesn't hurt to try and talk to him. So I ignored his comment and continued talking

"I was just wondering why you were still here? I mean I kinda always wrote you off as the "get up and leave early" type of person." I said trying to keep the conversation going.

"Well you thought wrong troublesome girl." Paul said bluntly.

"IT"S DAWN!" I yelled causing a few people to turn their heads. "Ah...sorry! Ehhe..he…" Paul just stood there and continued looking at me with a blank look. "Anyways, when are you leaving for Veilstone?" I asked changing the subject.

"After breakfast. Why?" Paul asked blankly.

"Would you mind if I came with you?" I asked carefully. It might be a good idea to travel with Paul in case Reggie needed for me to stall, I could come up with something to do.

"Why would you want to do that?" Paul asked skeptically.

"Well, I was taking a break from coordinating and that was my next destination anyway, besides, I haven't seen Reggie in a long time, Oh! And I also wanted to go to the department store." I lied flawlessly. I sort of anticipated for him to ask me why, so I thought of an excuse ahead of time. "Pleeease can I come?"

"Ugh...fine…" Paul grumbled out. "Only if promise not to be annoying. I'll meet you at the front of the center in an hour if you're late, I'm leaving anyway." He then turned and walked away.

One hour...okay then. Thankfully I already had my bags packed so all I needed to do was eat some breakfast, get my stuff, return my room key, and I should be set. I should probably also text Reggie and tell him I'm travelling with Paul to Veilstone. I'm all set then I guess, now to find a table…

* * *

I make one last check around my room and then make my way downstairs to give nurse Joy my room key. Thankfully keeping true to his promise, Paul is standing at the front doors waiting for me.

"Tch, took you long enough," Paul said sharply crossing his arms.

I mimicked his actions and also crossed my arms. "Hey! I'm on time so don't complain!" I restored sharply.

Paul turned towards the door and mumbled,"Hn… Let's just go…"

I followed behind him and we made our way through the city and into the forest. It was all quiet and to be honest, it was peaceful. Even though Paul's usually cold and stoic, being around him just makes me feel safe somehow.

I walked up to where Paul was and carefully approached him. "Umm Paul? I was wondering if I could let Piplup out of its pokeball just for some company?"

"It doesn't matter to me as long as he stays out of my way," he states bluntly.

"Ok thanks Paul!"

"Hn…"

"Come on out Piplup!" I say tossing his pokeball into the air. Piplup comes out along with a spray of bubbles.

"Pip-lup!"

"It's not a contest you know!" Paul grumpily says obviously a little miffed at the colourful display of bubbles from the seal I used. "Waste of time…" he muttered.

"Well excuse me for living!" I sharply say and sticking my tongue out after his back is turned. Call me childish but can't he ever say anything positive!

We continue walking along the forest path with Paul in the front and Piplup beside us. Much to Paul's annoyance, we stopped a few times due to the fact I wanted some good pictures of the scenery around us. Hey, it may be annoying but someone's gotta show this walking icecube how to live! I think my stupid eventually started getting to Paul though cause he finally spoke up to suggest something.

"Look, I don't feel like stopping every five minutes but I'm also not really in a rush to get to Veilstone, so why don't we split for about an hour and meet back here under this tree? That way, you can do whatever it is you want, and I can get some training in." Wow, that's the most I've ever heard him speak at once so he must be serious.

I nod my head at him "Ok sounds good!" I then proceed to walk off to some other part of the forest with Piplup. I decide to use my time to also talk to Reggie about Paul's "party" plans and updating him on where our location currently is. We want to make sure that Paul doesn't get to Veilstone until the day of his birthday, but from what I've seen, he doesn't seen too eager to get home fast anyway so we should be fine.

The hour went by quickly and I started to make my way back over to the tree we were meeting at. Once I got there, I could see that Paul had already arrived and was leaning against the tree with his arms crossed.

"You finally came back troublesome." He blankly stated.

"For the last time it's DAWN! D-A-W-N! Can't you ever get my name right you walking purple icecube!" I yell at him. Geez he really knows how to get me angry.

"Hn...Purple icecube?" He questions, though I swear I can see him smirking.

"Yeah! If you never say my name, why should I say yours?"

"Hn, let's just go."

"Fine," I say rolling my eyes, "C'mon Piplup!"

"P-lup!" Piplup hops over to where I am and we continue walking although this time I walk beside Paul instead of behind him. We weren't doing anything else besides walking so I decided to take out my camera and scroll through the pictures I took while on my trip. I keep walking like this for a few minutes and don't really pay attention to my surroundings.

"Look out Troublesome!" Paul yells at me. Suddenly I feel a hand grab my arm and pull me back.

"Huh?" I say curiously and abruptly stop walking. I then notice that I was about to crash into a huge tree and Paul had grabbed my arm to prevent that from happening. "Thank-"

"You nearly walked straight into a beedrill nest!" He said roughly.

My eyes widen. "BEEDRILL!" I exclaim in fear and while yelling, unconsciously latch myself onto Paul's arm. "Those things are SCARY!"

"Yeah you might want to be quiet before you cause a commotion and they start chasing us!" Paul roughly snaps. "And why are you holding onto my arm?"

"Oh umm…" I start after realizing exactly what I was doing. I slowly peel myself away from his arm while slightly blushing from the contact. "I-er...force of habit?" I try sheepishly. "Sorry! I didn't mean to do that…"

"Hmp, whatever, let's just get outta here." He turns around and continues to walk, leaving me to contemplate what just happened.

I quickly jog up to him and we continue walking down the path in silence. After a few hours, we make it to a small village and decide to stay the night there since it's getting late. Maybe I could even find a small present for Paul somewhere here. We're about a quarter way to Veilstone, so I'll need to find a way to stall for a while.

We make our way to the Pokemon center and after checking into our rooms, I tell Paul I'm going to go walk around town for a bit.

A few minutes later, I find myself in front of a little store called "The corner specialty shop". I walk inside and the bell above the door gives a nice chime.

"Hello and welcome to The corner specialty shop, I'm Kas and if you need any help, just come and ask!" The cashier greets with a friendly smile. She looks to be about my age with long dark brown hair and a purple streak tied up on the left side of her head.

"Thank you!" I politely say back to her with a nod of my head.

I look around the store and it appears that they sell little keychains, magnets, and other small things like that.

"um excuse me?" I ask the cashier, "I was wondering if u had anything a human icecube would like?"

"Pardon me?" She questions incredulously probably from my deception of Paul.

"Oh hehe, it's just that I have this ummm… friend? Yeah friend who is always cold and stoic so I just call him the human icecube. Do u have anything someone like him might like?

"Hmm…" she thinks for a moment. "Well most of our stuff in this shop is meant to have more of a cute edge to it, as you can see," she says while gesturing around the store, "but we do custom jobs if you want?"

"That sounds pretty cool! I'll think about it." I turn around and continue to look around the store for something that might appeal to Paul. It seems like they all sorts of small things in this store though, such as keychains, magnets, christmas ornaments, the list goes on. Just nothing much in here seems to suit Paul. I pace around for a bit and after looking at a few things, I come up with something. I make my way over to Kas and whisper the idea into her ear.

"Ooh! That's a cute idea!" She says excitedly. "How long are you staying in this town for?"

"I could probably stay a couple days," I say while thinking up and excuse I'll have to tell Paul.

"Great! I should have it ready for you by tomorrow night around this time!" She says with a smile. "So would you like to pay now or when you come pick it up?" She says while writing down the order on a sheet of paper. "Can i also have your name?"

"Yeah sure, it's Dawn." I reply, "I'll pay now, but I want to look around your store a little more first, there's just so much stuff in here!" I say excitedly while looking around. "Did you make all of this?"

"Well, actually, this is my grandmother's store, I just help out from time to time." She responds.

"Oh that's nice of you! Well, I'm just going to go look around." I turn around and walk around the little store and marvel at the things here and there. I can see all sorts of really cute things and I'm tempted to go on a shopping spree in this one little store.

I end up finding something small for myself and something for my mom. I also found a travel sized notebook with a Torterra on it and decided to add that to my gift for Paul. I then walk up to the counter to pay for everything.

"Ok! Here is all the stuff I'm getting," I say putting the small pile on the counter.

"All right! So...is that custom keychain for your icecube boyfriend?" Kas asks with a bit of a sly smile while scanning the items.

I turn slightly red at the comment. "No! No! He's not my boyfriend!" I say quickly waving my hands in front of my face. "I-I'm not even sure we're friends! I just wanted to do something nice for him for his birthday!" I finish quickly.

"Ooh birthday? Hey, if you didn't already order one, my friend Jaya owns a pastry shop just next door on the right called Theodore treats. They have really good cakes and their still open so you could probably order a one from them. They also have Pelipper delivery services so you don't have to worry about carrying the cake either!" Kas suggests as she hands me my bag of items and a receipt for the keychain. "Ok, so here is everything, and just bring the receipt back tomorrow to pick up the keychain! Have a good night!

"Thank you!" I say as I exit the door. I send a quick text to Reggie telling him that I can get us a cake and walk into the little pastry store next door.

"Hiya there!" The girl at the counter greets me. Her name tag reads Jaya so she must be the friend Kas was talking about.

"Hi!" I say back with a short wave of my hand. "Do you have any cakes that would be good for four people?" I ask walking up to the counter.

"Well we have a variety of different small cakes right here!" She says as she walks over to one of the shelves. "Do any of these look right to you?"

"Hmm…" I think for a moment. "They all look very good, but not exactly what I'm looking for...do you do ice cream cakes?" I question looking up.

"Well, it's not really traditional pastry, but yeah we do sell a few flavours of ice cream cake." She says tapping her chin and thinking. "We have green tea, mango, cookie dough, vanilla, chocolate, and of course standard birthday cake flavour. But personally, I recommend the cookie dough flavour.

"Ooh! I love cookie dough!" I exclaim, but then think about what Paul would like… "Unfortunately, it doesn't seem like something the person I'm buying for would like…maybe I'll just take a small green tea ice cream cake?"

"Sure of course!" She responds with a happy smile. "Do you want anything written on it?"

"How about just write "Happy Birthday Paul!" In purple icing?" I say.

"Sure thing! This for your brother or dad?" She asks while putting down the order.

"No, it's for a umm… friend…" I hesitantly reply.

"Perhaps a boyfriend?" She says with a mischievous gleam in her eye.

"No! No! Nothing like that! Just a…friend!" I say quickly. "Why are you and your friend both trading me about this!"

"So I take it you met Kas right? Relax we're just teasing you!" She says with a nonchalant wave of her hand. "Anything else you need?" She asks looking up.

"I heard that you have a Pelipper delivery service?" I question.

"Yeah that's right! Would you like your cake delivered by Pelipper?" She asks while writing down my order on a form. "I'll need the mailing address if you choose to use it."

I quickly send a text to review telling him about the cake. Luckily he texts back quickly with the address and I give it to (name).

"Alright! When do you want the cake to arrive there?"

"Exactly a week from today is fine." I answer as she quickly writes down the order. "Thank you by the way!"

"No prob! Have a good night and enjoy the cake!"

I exit the shop and decided to head back to the Pokemon center, but on the way there, I spot Paul training his Pokemon. I hide behind a tree and decide to watch for a little.

"That's better Torterra, but your timing is still off, we'll have to work on it some more tomorrow." I hear him say to Torterra while touching its head. I guess he's being a little nicer to his Pokemon now which is probably good.

I stop watching and continue on my way to the center. By now it's nightfall so I should probably put my stuff away then get some sleep.

* * *

The next day during breakfast, I ask Paul if we could stay in this town for another day. I made up some excuse of wanting to find souvenirs to take home and thankfully he said it was fine. Actually his exact words were "I don't care, whatever" then he walked away. In the evening, I went back to Kas's store to pick up the keychain and all was set. I think everything is coming together nicely.

The rest of the week went by similarly and soon enough it was the big day. The cake had arrived safely and earlier in the week, I had sent my presents to Reggie's house so he could wrap them for me. Everything was falling into place.

As we continue along the dirt path, I sent a quick text to Reggie telling him we arrived in Veilstone.

"Why do you keep doing that?" Paul questioned me out of nowhere.

"Doing what?" I asked back looking at him with confusion.

"Texting on your poketch. You've been doing that pretty much everyday." He said as he pointed to my wrist. Oh darn, looks like he noticed.

"Oh I-umm… er…was just uh…texting… my mom! Yeah! To keep hey updated on where I am!" I said quickly hoping to look for an alibi.

Paul raised an eyebrow at me. "... Ok… then…" he said slowly.

We continued walking towards the direction of Paul and Reggie's house until I got a text from Reggie asking me to buy him some time. I need to quickly think of something!

"Wait Paul!" I called and he stopped walking, "I er…Umm… can you show me where the department store is? I um… my mom told me… Uh…umm… she told me…the poffin machine broke!" I said quickly, "and she wants me to get a new one… from the department store…" I finished awkwardly. I mentally slapped myself and shook my head for coming up with such a lame excuse.

"...uh…ok?" Paul looks at me skeptically but nonetheless, agrees to take me to the department store.

"Yay! Thanks Paul!" I jump up and pretend to squeal in excitement. But seriously, broken poffin machine, what was I thinking?

We spent about an hour at the department stores going into different stores "looking" for poffin machines. I just hope Reggie is done soon, I don't know how much longer I can keep this charade on for.

"C'mon troublesome! Are you done yet you've looked through at least 50 different styles of poffin makers!" Paul grumbled impatiently.

"Well I haven't found the right one yet!" I said feigning frustration. Suddenly my poketch beeps with a message from Reggie saying we can come. Finally! "Ah well, doesn't look like they have the right model here, that's a shame I guess. Well, we can head to your house now I guess?" I said to Paul in mock exasperation.

"Are you kidding me! We just spent an hour looking for something that doesn't even exist!? You really are troublesome." Paul states annoyed.

"um correction! I was looking for the machine, you were just standing there sulking. But whatever, let's head back!" I say excitedly with a skip in my step.

We finally make it to Paul's house and he unlocks the door with his key. We step inside and everything is dark hence the surprise. While Paul looks around confused, I make my way over to the couch where Reggie and Maylene are hiding.

"Reggie? Why are the lights off? Troublesome? Troub-" Paul's sentence cuts short, " where'd she go?"

Paul walks over to the light switch and turns out on. As he does this, Reggie, Maylene, and I pop up from behind the couch throwing little bits of confetti and yell, "Surprise! Happy birthday Paul!"

Paul stares at is with mild surprise before humming an affirmative "hn." I swear if you looked closer enough, you could see the ghost of a smile there.

"What!" Maylene exclaims loudly. "Your brother and Dawn spent so much time on this for you and you can't be more grateful?"

Reggie and I stare at her in disbelief and then burst out in unison, "Are you kidding me? I haven't seen him this happy in my entire life!"

"I know you didn't want anything big for your birthday Paul, but I still wanted to do something for you so I hope you're not mad." I say carefully.

"It's fine… Thanks…"

"Hey! Let's give him his presents and then eat the cake!" Reggie says enthusiastically. We walk over to the kitchen where a small pile of presents is waiting.

Maylene hands Paul her gift first. It consisted of two ultraballs and a few potions and berries. "I thought these might come in handy" she said while smiling.

Next Reggie have Paul his gift. It was the newest edition of the complete guide to Hoenn Pokemon. He also gave Paul a new bag since his old one was well… old. "This should come in handy for your journey!" Reggie had said.

Lastly, I gave Paul my present. I really hope he liked it. It took a long time to figure out what to give him but eventually, I settled on giving him that Torterra notebook and the custom keychain. It took a long time to figure out what I wanted the keychain to be of. Eventually, what I came up with was a long silver chain with clear circular orbs hanging from it, each with one of his Pokemon inside, and as a sort of inside joke, a purple icecube made out of crystal hung from the end.

First, Paul pulled out the notebook. "That's so you can write down battle strategies or whatever you want." I explained.

"This could come in handy…" Paul contemplated as he put it inside his new bag. Then he saw the keychain and took it out examining it and cracking a small smile once he saw the icecube at the end. "Hm." He hummed an affirmative.

"Wow that's so cool!" Maylene said as she examined the keychain. "But I don't understand what the icecube is for?"

"Oh I get it!" Reggie exclaims proudly. "It's because Paul's hair is purple and he acts like an icecube right?" He said while running Paul's head.

"Aug Reggie! Stop doing that!" Paul said roughly while pushing Reggie's hand away. Paul then pocketed the keychain in a safe place.

"Ok, ok, let's get the cake out!" Reggie says while laughing.

"There's a cake?" Paul questions blankly.

"Yeah, but don't worry, it's just a really small one and it's ice cream!" I say assuring Paul that we didn't do anything big.

"Ok...but no birthday song." Paul says in a somewhat serious tone, although his comment is mostly aimed at Reggie. We all laugh and say happy birthday Paul while bringing out the cake.

"Ok, if you don't want the song, at least make a wish." Reggie jokingly says.

"You don't actually believe it works do you?" Paul raises and eyebrow and looks at Reggie.

"Maybe not, but it doesn't hurt to have a little fun right?" I say while lightly punching his shoulder.

"Well ok then," I'm not sure if he actually made a wish or not but he waited a moment before blowing out the candles. After that, we cut the cake and ate it.

"So Dawn, what are your plans now?" Reggie asked.

"I was planning to go to Hoenn and compete in the contest circuit there! I replied. "I've already been once, but i didn't win, I was hoping maybe this time could be better!"

"Hm...say Paul, aren't you also in Hoenn?" Reggie said turning to Paul. Oh no, I think I know where this is going. "Why don't you two just go to Hoenn together? You've already travelled here together, and considering you didn't come in yelling at each other, I'd say it went pretty well."

I decided to speak up first. "You know what, maybe travelling with you isn't so bad Paul, I could consider it." I don't know, somewhere along the way, travelling with Paul just started to seem kind of natural. Truth be told, travelling with him was comfortable in its own sort of odd way.

"And maybe you aren't as annoying as I thought you would be." Paul says turning to me with a crooked smile.

"I'll try if you do Paul," I say confidently.

"Hm...sure, why not?" I smile at him brightly, and he sort of smiles back.

We talk with Reggie and Maylene for a little longer, but soon, it's time for me to head home. Paul and I had agreed to meet back at the Sunnyshore port in 5 days. As I walked to the door, Paul follows me and I turn around to look up at him.

"Thanks for the "party" Dawn…" Paul says a little less cold and stoic than normal. Wait-did he just-he just say thank you and my real name? It was probably spur of the moment but at that moment, I just lunged forward and gave him a hug.

"You're welcome Paul glad you liked it." And for once, he doesn't pull away.

* * *

3rd person POV

The two of them stood there for a while with Reggie and Maylene watching from farther behind. You see, Dawn and Paul are just like the ice cream cake. Ice cream is cold, but it's also paired with a sweetness. The same way Dawn is the sweetness to Paul's coldness.

* * *

 _A/N: So...there's my story I guess...(insert nervous laughter) Thanks for reading and I hope you liked it! I guess if you didn't notice, Kas and Jaya are OCs. Kas belongs to me, but Jaya belongs to my good friend (IRL) Transformautobot5643! Thank you for letting me use her in my story!_

 _Anyway, a big, Happy Ikarishipping day to all you Ikarishippers!_


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